ReinCarnation building set to quietly fade away

By Preston Turegano
ARTS/ENTERTAINMENT WRITER

December 7, 2003

In a year when voices in the arts community cried foul after the California Arts Council's budget was slashed to just $1 million (down from $18 million), and others cheered the relationship between the arts and local tourism, almost nothing was said about the coming of the Icon.

The lack of comment perhaps stems from the fact that the Icon – a new complex of residential towers – is not as well known as the true icon it will replace: the 76-year-old ReinCarnation Project at 10th Avenue and J Street. Sure, there was buzz late last year that the ReinCarnation Project was on the market, but no one knew what exactly might be built on the site.

Originally, the boxy, mostly two-story ReinCarnation Project was the headquarters of Qualitee Dairy Products, later a division of the Carnation Co. In 1978, it began a series of transitions, from artists studios, loft living spaces, an odd assortment of offices, an art gallery, to an intimate venue for performance artists. In 1990, the structure was designated a city of San Diego historical site.

Since 1990, the western side of the ReinCarnation Project has been distinctive for Mario Torero's hypnotic "Eyes of Picasso" mural. (It was removed but repainted a few times over the past 13 years.)

In 1996, avant-garde and hip Sushi Visual and Performance Art moved into the second floor of the ReinCarnation Project. Sushi presents performance artists, dance and art exhibits.

Like the rest of East Village, the ReinCarnation Project is part of the area's overall redevelopment. Already, the San Diego Padres' Petco Park, new high-rise condos and hotels, and towering garages loom near the ReinCarnation, which these days looks like an old spinster flanked by young vivacious beauties waiting to be asked to dance. (Someday, the new central library is supposed to rise east of the Icon. Once it becomes a reality, City Hall should not dismiss the opportunity to include art and artists as part of the library's operations.)

For most of the year, Levin Menzies & Associates (of Walnut Creek) had been negotiating with ReinCarnation owner Wayne Buss to acquire the site to build the Icon approved by the Centre City Development Corp. On Nov. 25, escrow closed on Buss and Menzies' deal. The ReinCarnation sold for $7,876,000, county tax assessor records say.

The Icon will consist of four separate buildings of varying height and underground parking. There will be 320 units including flats, penthouses, town homes, second-floor lofts and ground-floor live/work lofts, and retail.

The least expensive of the residential units reportedly will sell in the mid-$200,000 range.

"We will break ground in August and deliver the first units approximately 18 months later," said Richard Garcia, acquisitions manager for Levin Menzies.

Earlier this year, Garcia said the Icon will "reflect the industrial character of the neighborhood." An artist's drawing of the Icon does evoke a factorylike appearance for most of the project, but the ReinCarnation Project is unrecognizable.

Downtown residential towers are nothing new on the landscape. Over the past few years, dozens of such edifices have sprung up from Little Italy to East Village.

As for the cultural elements in the ReinCarnation, Sushi will move out in August and become itinerant for two years while the Icon is built. Levin Menzies is assuming Sushi's lease on its ReinCarnation Project space. The performing arts company will conduct site-specific operations from next summer into 2006. During that time, Sushi will be known as "Sushi: Take Out." After that, Sushi will become an Icon tenant.

"We're devoted to keeping the arts downtown," said Sushi board President Vernon Franck.

Also committed to having a presence downtown is Debra Owen, whose 5,000-square-foot Debra Owen Gallery also must vacate the ReinCarnation Project.

She said she has an unsigned agreement with Levin Menzies to become a part of the completed Icon. In the interim, the Owen gallery will operate out of 1,000 square feet in a space on Sixth Avenue between Market Street and Island Avenue.

Torero's "Eyes of Picasso," which was again painted over Thanksgiving week, could end up being re-created elsewhere on the property or in the neighborhood.

Besides that work of art, and Sushi and the Owen gallery's temporary displacement, the arts community has lost a historic landmark that despite its gritty look was beautiful. Spaces where artists – particularly painters and sculptors – work should look worked-in and not pristine and slick and gleaming like an office tower. Even an art gallery can be warm and inviting when it's not quite all neat and tidy.

The passing of the ReinCarnation Project represents a low point in the arts year and clearly prompts the question, "Why didn't the arts community rally to preserve the building?" Apparently, the Centre City Development Corp. was jazzed by newness and not necessarily by art. Still, Levin Menzies must be saluted for wanting Sushi and Owen as part of the completed redevelopment.

One more interrogatory is warranted in the ReinCarnation/Icon saga: Why didn't the city Commission for Arts and Culture, which last month rejected A. Wasil's proposed waterfront monstrosity "Spirit of the Seas" sculpture, chime in?

Victoria Hamilton, arts commission materfamilias, didn't know what the Icon was until recently after she was asked the preceding question. Beyond that, her reaction upon seeing Levin Menzies' design was, "Interesting. Is there going to be a cultural space?"

The answer, of course, is yes, but antiseptic.

Preston Turegano: (619) 293-1357; preston.turegano@uniontrib.com